Method for tracking and notification or recipient-initiated mail items

ABSTRACT

A method in which the creation of identifier information is done by the recipient in a convenient fashion and communicated to the mailer. A recipient, such as a business or consumer who orders mail items of value, i.e., merchandise, documents, etc., from a mailer would give the mailer the recipient&#39;s electronic address and the recipient&#39;s delivery and handling preferences for the ordered merchandise. The electronic address and delivery and handling preferences of the recipient may be given to the mailer in plain language or in codified or encrypted form. This invention takes into account recipient&#39;s desires and preferences by entering information about the recipient&#39;s desires and preferences into a computerized actionable form.

[0001] This Application claims the benefit of the filing date of U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/460,583 filed Apr. 4, 2003, which isowned by the assignee of the present Application.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0002] The present invention relates to mailing and logistics systemsand more particularly to mailing and logistics systems that therecipient selects the manner in which the delivered mail item will beprocessed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] In mail communication and logistic systems dedicated todistribution of physical items, there is frequently a problem regardingthe monitoring of progress of items inducted into the system. Physicalitems that are deposited into distribution and delivery systems arereferred to herein as “mail items”. Mail items may be letters, flats,packages, irregularly-shaped objects or any other physical items thatare capable of being mailed within security and size constraints imposedby carrier systems. Such systems may be created and managed by public(Posts) or private (FedEx, DHL, UPS) entities are referred to herein ascarrier distribution system or carrier systems.

[0004] Primary parties involved with carrier systems are mailer(sender), carrier (e.g., Post), recipient and sometimes severalindependent third parties that provide services to any of the primarythree parties involved in mail communication system. Examples of thirdparties include mail contractors that provide mail creation or finishingservices for mailers, quality of service monitoring parties, legalauthorities called upon for dispute resolution between primary partiesand other parties that perform auxiliary functions to creation,distribution and delivery of physical items. It should also be notedthat in some implementations, certain functions of the carrier can beperformed by other parties such as trusted suppliers or subcontractors.In this case, the carrier, for example may outsource all data processingactivities associated with processing and providing track and traceinformation to mailers, recipients and other parties.

[0005] Mailers and recipients frequently require knowledge of thelocation of the mailed item at any given moment in time during theprocess of its distribution. Such locations could be any intermediatepoints along the distribution route or final delivery point. Theinformation about location of mailed items can have a broad variety ofuses including planning of operations, supply chain management, cashflow management etc. The system of providing such information is knownby the name of “track and trace” and is employed by most carriers in theindustrial world. The term “track” normally refers to the process offinding the location of a given mail item at a given moment in time whenthe item is believed to be under the system's control and is progressingthrough the system in the expected and predictable manner, while theterm “trace” usually implies the process of finding the last knownlocation of the (potentially) lost mail item. In any case, the serviceof “track and trace” involves three basic components and theirassociated processes.

[0006] The first process is the creation and application to the mailitem of a unique and machine-readable mail item identifier.

[0007] The second process is the capturing of the mail item identifierinformation at different (normally) pre-defined points along the mailitem distribution route within the carrier system including the point ofdelivery (either in a pre-determined receptacle that allows access tothe mail item to the intended recipient (e.g., mail box or post officebox) or directly into the hands of such recipient). Capturinginformation at different points is normally referred to as “events” inthe life cycle of the mail item. Events are defined as “significant”happenings in the life cycle of the item whereby the term “significant”implies importance of the happening to any of the primary or auxiliaryparties involved in the mail item creation, processing and delivery.Examples of the events significant for the carrier are the handing overof the item from the carrier facility to a transportation unit or from acarrier to another entity such as Governmental Customs Offices. Eventssignificant to the mailer are, for example, the attempted delivery ofthe mail item to the recipient or the induction of the mail item intothe carrier system. Events are normally codified and accompanied byadditional informational elements known as “attributes”. Typicalattributes of an event are its codified location and time stamp.Capturing the mail item identifier, events and its attributes is one ofthe important functions of the carrier.

[0008] The third process is providing access to events/attributesinformation to all interested parties, primarily to mailers andrecipients. The process of track and trace has evolved over the yearsand has been driven by private carriers desire to keep their customersinformed while simultaneously upgrading the carrier's own managementcontrol system and service monitoring. As a result, all traditionaltrack and trace systems evolved to be reasonable and economicallyeffective systems for carriers, and cumbersome and not user-friendlysystems for mailers and recipients. Specifically, in all traditionalcases, the first step of creating a track and trace identifier for mailitems involves the creation of the identifier information by a carrierand communication of such information to the mailer.

[0009] At the time the identifier information is created, it is unknownto the recipient and, thus, must be communicated to the recipient in aseparate communication step in order to provide the intended recipientwith the means of accessing track and trace information from thecarrier. Furthermore, traditional methods of accessing track and traceinformation for mailers and recipients are also cumbersome andinconvenient. For example, in most of the cases, the recipient isnotified by a physical post card about significant events (such asarrival of the mail item at carrier's delivery facility) or, in a moremodern method, both the mailer and the recipient may have access totrack and trace information through a carrier-maintained web site(typically data base of events and attributes). The latter methodrequires a significant amount of access management effort includingpassword management and the like.

[0010] One of the problems of the prior art is that existing systems areinconvenient for the customer and economically inefficient, thus makinguseful services cumbersome to access and costly to use.

[0011] Another problem of the prior art is that existing systemspreferences and access to delivery information are either unknown orignored at the time of mail item creation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0012] This invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art byproviding a method in which the creation of identifier information isdone by the recipient in a convenient fashion and communicated to themailer. A recipient such as a business or consumer who orders mail itemsof value, i.e., merchandise, documents, etc., from a mailer would givethe mailer the recipient's electronic address and the recipient'sdelivery and handling preferences for the ordered merchandise. Theelectronic address and delivery and handling preferences of therecipient may be given to the mailer in plain language or in codified orencrypted form. This invention takes into account recipient's desiresand preferences by entering information about the recipient's desiresand preferences into a computerized actionable form.

[0013] The foregoing also simplifies the process of managing identifiersin order to avoid possible identifier collisions that would occur if theidentifiers are created independently by mailers.

[0014] An additional advantage of this invention is that all otherparties, i.e., mailer, carrier, and third parties involved in thetransaction, are completely relieved of the necessity to create andmanage identifiers for mail items produced according to the presentinvention. The recipient is the party who creates the identifier.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for creating, processing anddelivery of mail items that embodies the present invention;

[0016]FIG. 2 is a graphic representation of a mail item printed by thesystem shown in FIG. 1 and includes a mail item identifier andrecipient's delivery preferences; and

[0017]FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a process for creation of a mail item,and of a recipient and sender's notification process.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0018] Referring now to the drawings in detail and more particularly toFIG. 1, the reference character 11 represents a recipient computersystem that is coupled to a public communication network, such as theInternet, telephone network, facsimile machine, etc. Computer 11 has aunique and identifiable electronic address, i.e., e-mail address, IPaddress. A telephone or facsimile machine that is connected to acommunication network would have a unique telephone number or facsimilenumber. Electronic Address or CEA, and a third party required fordispute resolution has its electronic address TTPEA, etc.

[0019] Mailer creation system 12 includes a communications unit 13 thatis coupled to computer processing unit 14, and a printer 15 that iscoupled to computer processing unit 14. Carrier system 16 includes acommunication unit 17 and a data capture or scanning unit 18. Computer11 is coupled to communication unit 13 and communication unit 17, andcommunication unit 13 is coupled to communication unit 17. Printer 15will produce mail items, i.e., mail piece 50, containing a RecipientRequest Transporter (RRT) 57 (which is described in the description ofFIG. 2). RRT 57 will be read by scanning unit 18.

[0020] The process of the present invention begins when a first entity“recipient” (such as business or a consumer) decides to ordermerchandise or request a document from another second entity “mailer” or“sender”. The merchandise or a document is referred to as “mail item”.It is assumed that the mail item has a value (meaning monetary, legal ortime value or any combination of such values) to both the mailer and therecipient and, therefore, it is desirable at least to achieve reasonableassurances of mail item delivery to its intended recipient. The placingof an order (or a request for a document to be sent by the mailer) bythe recipient can take any desirable form, for example, through theInternet (by accessing the merchant's web site), by telephone, by fax,by physical mail using pre-printed order forms, or in person bycommunicating required information orally.

[0021] It also should be noted that: (1) recipient has means tocommunicate his/her REA together with his/her service delivery processpreferences (in a codified form or a common plain language) to bothmailer and carrier; and shall refer to the information containingrecipient's process preferences and his/her REA as Recipient's Requestor RR; and (2) mailer has means to receive RR from the recipient andtransform RR into machine-readable (and human-readable if needed)information that can be presented on the mail item. This means thatmailer, for example, can convert RR to a computerized file that can beprinted in a machine/human-readable form on a label that can be attachedto the mail item or can be imprinted directly on the mail item. Thehuman/machine-readable form can be a two-dimensional bar code with atleast some information repeated in a human-readable form or an RFID tagor any other suitable form, for example, a symbol imprinted withnano-technology processed ink with a large information capacity. Weshall refer below to the information physically presented on the mailitem and containing RR as Recipient's Request Transporter or RRT. Itshould be noted that the situation with the mailer is symmetrical to thesituation with the recipient in a sense that the mailer can also createa mailer's request MR containing its own electronic address MEA andrequest for various event information from both the carrier and therecipient;

[0022] Carrier has means to capture RRT off the mail piece at differentlocations and times during mail item processing and delivery and executeinstruction contained in the RRT or otherwise act on the RRTinformation. In practice, this means, for example, that the carrier hasmeans to scan RRT and send scanned information with or without furtherprocessing to either REA or MEA, or to TTPEA or all of them.

[0023] As it was mentioned, the recipient begins the process of thepresent invention by creating recipient's request or RR. This requestcan contain the following information:

[0024] 1. Description of the merchandise or document or any other itemthat recipient is requesting to be shipped or mailed by the mailer. Thisdescription is sufficient to uniquely identify such merchandise,document and item for the mailer who is in possession of such item. Forsimplicity, we shall refer to this description as MerchandiseDescription or MDST. It should be expressly noted that the presentinvention does not impose any restriction on the type of merchandise orits description except its uniqueness, so that the mailer may find suchmerchandise (or document) in its warehouses or archives without anyambiguity. An example of MDST is ordering a hat from a clothingdistributor such as L. L. Bean. It may contain mailer's internal codefor a desired hat style (e.g., HY2376), size (e.g., 7.5), color (e.g.,GRN), etc.

[0025] 2. REA (Recipient's Electronic Address)

[0026] 3. Recipient-assigned unique identifier for the requestedmerchandise that meets MDST. For example, such identifier may be LLB001indicating to recipient and possibly its information technology systemthat the ordered merchandise is from L. L. Bean, and it is the firstmerchandise ordered from this mail order house.

[0027] The Recipient-Assigned Unique Identifier for the requestedmerchandise will be referred to as RAUI. The RAUI may contain MDST, dateof order as one of its parts or some other information helpful incomputerized or human processing of the data that will be received fromthe carrier. It is important to note here that RAUI together with REArepresent globally unique identifier for the mail item.

[0028] 4. Recipient-defined preferences for mail item processing anddelivery that define how recipient would want to have mail itemprocessed by the mailer and the carrier (or carriers if more than onecarrier is going to be involved, for example, in the case ofcross-border mail). Most important examples of the recipient-definedpreferences for mail item processing and delivery are instructions tothe carrier such as when the mail item should be delivered torecipient's address (for example after 6:00 PM), where it should bedelivered (for example at the back porch) or Poste Restante (meaningthat the mail item should be left at carrier's delivery office for pickup by the mailer). Other examples may include instructions to avoidsending the mail item through certain facilities (e.g., known to be moreprone to theft) or instructions to charge custom fees directly from acertain specified bank account. Most importantly, the carrier notifiesthe recipient (about all events required by recipient) by using REA.This means that the carrier, for example, can send an automaticallygenerated e-mail message to the recipient's computer about arrival ofthe mail item at carrier's delivery office nearest to the recipient'sphysical address, and, in the absence of any explicit deliveryinstructions from the recipients may advise the recipients aboutdelivery time period according to normal schedules.

[0029] The type and number of preferences are limited only by practicallimitations of representing such instructions physically on the mailitem (if this is necessary) and the “vocabulary” of coded preferences.It should be expressly noted that it is not necessary to representrecipient-defined preferences for mail item processing and delivery onthe mail item itself. The required functionality can also be achieved byputting all preferences in an electronic data base indexed by REA andRDUI and making it accessible to all required parties (e.g., mailer,carrier, TTP). However, in the preferred embodiment, the physicalrepresentation of instructions on the mail item is particularlyeffective, because it does not require any additional data basemanagement.

[0030] We shall refer to Recipient-Defined Preferences for Mail ItemProcessing and Delivery as RDPfD.

[0031] 5. (Optionally) charge account where charges for shipping andhandling can be settled between mailer, recipient and carrier. We shallrefer to this item as Charging Information or CI.

[0032]FIG. 2 is a graphic representation of mail item 50 printed by thesystem shown in FIG. 1 and includes a mail item identifier andrecipient's delivery preferences. Mail piece 50 has a recipient addressfield 51 and a sender address field 52. A postal indicia 53 that wasmade by an electronic meter is affixed to mail piece 50. Indicia 53contains a dollar amount 54; the date 55 that postal indicia 53 wasaffixed to mail piece 50; and a two-dimensional bar code 56. A RecipientRequest Transporter 57 is also affixed to mail item 50. Transporter 57is a physical representation of the recipient's request, which will bemore fully described in the description of FIG. 3. Transporter 57 isshown in the form of a two-dimensional bar code, also known as a datamatrix code. It will be obvious to one skilled in the art thattransporter 57 may take the form of alphanumeric characters or a radiofrequency identification tag.

[0033]FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a process for creation of mail item 50,and of a recipient and sender's notification process. The process beginsin step 100 with the creation by the recipient of the recipient'srequest, i.e., the information file RR:

RR=MDST|REA+RAUI|RDPfD|CI,

[0034] where | means concatenation, i.e., the tacking of two or moreseparately located things and placing them side by side so that they maybe treated as one thing. The next step in the process is step 101 wherethe Recipient communicates RR to the mailer by one of the methodsdescribed above.

[0035] Then the process goes to step 102 where the mailer receives RR(and converts it if necessary into a computerized file). The mailer alsocomputes the shipping and handling charges. Now in step 103 the mailergenerates RRT from received RR and applies RRT to the mail item.Optionally, the mailer may also apply its own MR together with MEA forthe purpose of obtaining events communications from the carrier or therecipient. At this point, the process goes to step 104 where the mailerdeposits the mail item into carrier's system according to instructionsin RR. The mailer also settles shipping and handling charges with therecipient using CI. Then in step 105 (optionally), the mailer notifiesthe recipient about the deposit event, its time and place using REA.

[0036] Next in step 106, the carrier receives the mail item from themailer and captures RR from the mail item. Then in step 107, the carrierprocesses the mail item and follows recipient's instructions from RDPfD.Now in step 108, the carrier notifies the recipient about deliveryschedule using REA and delivers the mail item to the recipient accordingto RDPfD. The notification message contains RAUI. Next in step 109,(optionally), the carrier may notify the mailer about all significantmailer events using MEA that can be represented on the mail item in amachine-readable format. Next in step 110, the recipient receives themail item, captures MR from the mail item and communicates to the mailerinformation required by the mailer by using MEA. Then in step 111, therecipient creates a record of delivery and charges in its own IT systemusing information received from the mailer and the carrier.

[0037] It should be noted that all described services and improvementscan be implemented with almost infinite variety of nuances that areentirely within the spirit and in step 111, the recipient creates arecord of delivery and charges in its own IT system using informationreceived from the mailer and the carrier.

[0038] It should be noted that all described services and improvementscan be implemented with almost infinite variety of nuances that areentirely within the spirit and the scope of the present invention. Newcarrier services possible with the system and method of the presentinvention can be charged to either recipient or mailer or both.Significantly, the system of present invention allows for automatedaccounting for the charges both within and outside (by carrier) mailitem generation system as well within recipient's information technologysystem. Independent accounting by mailer's and recipient's system can beused for reconciliation and dispute resolution.

[0039] It should also be noted that the method of present inventionavoids using physical cards notifying recipients about unsuccessfuldelivery attempts that are common in many contemporary carrier systems.This is done by executing recipient's instructions RDPfD, for example,leaving mail item either in recipient's controlled receptacle or otherspecified by the recipient place. Thus, the method of the presentinvention delivers significant convenience and cost reduction to allparties involved in mail communication system.

[0040] The above specification describes a new and improved mailing andlogistics method that enables a recipient to select the manner in whichthe recipient ordered item will be delivered and processed. It isrealized that the above description

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for tracking and notification of recipient initiated mail items, which comprises the steps of: (a) selecting by a recipient a mailer-defined description of an item of value that is in the possession of the mailer; (b) selecting a unique electronic address of the recipient; (c) creating by the recipient a unique identifier for the item of value; (d) creating a description of recipient's delivery preferences; (e) combining the information selected and created in steps A-D in a information record; (f) communicating the information record to the mailer; (g) creating a physical representation of the information record; (h) applying the physical representation of the information record to a mail item; (i) capturing information from the physical representation of the information record within a carrier system; (j) creating location information regarding the presence of the mail item at a specified location within the carrier system; and (k) communicating the captured information and location information to the recipient and to the mailer.
 2. The method claimed in claim 1, further including the step of: creating information for handling of the mail item for third parties.
 3. The method claimed in claim 2, wherein the third party is a Governmental Customs Office.
 4. The method claimed in claim 2, wherein the third party is an escrow agent.
 5. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the description of the item is uniquely indicative of the item.
 6. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the identifier is known by the recipient system.
 7. The method claimed in claim 5, wherein the recipient uses the identifier to integrate information from the carrier system to recipient internal applications.
 8. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the location information includes the date and time the mail item is at the specified location.
 9. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the location information includes the date and time the mail item is delivered to the recipient.
 10. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the captured information is communicated to the mailer via e-mail.
 11. The method claimed in claim 1, wherein the captured information is communicated to the recipient via e-mail. 